The People’s Show: Promoting Critical Response

An exhibition of artwork done by local artists was sponsored by a midwestern university gallery to promote greater community involvement. It was open to all artists and all media for a small entrance fee. A questionnaire of provocative categories was given out at the opening to elicit spectator reactions to the work and to help them vote. They were asked to decide which works best represented the particular categories. Responses to the show were mostly positive; however, certain artworks evoked much controversy and publicity. Two artworks, bordering on the pornographic, raised the question: Is art anything one can get away with? The press and public valued the work for its shock effect. Academia remained silent which raised another question: What is the role of art departments and art educators in considering the ethical dimension of art, to separate the schlock from the shock

Understanding Popular Culture: The Uses and Abuses of Fashion Advertising

Today\u27s young people are bombarded by messages. They should be taught to evaluate what they hear, to understand how ideas are clarified or distorted, and to explore how the accuracy and reliability of an oral (visual) message can be tested (Boyer, 1983, p.92). Students are often manipulated by media messages and they are unaware of the uses and abuses of the media by advertisers. In many ways such manipulation makes students dependent on materialistic rewards, regardless of moral concern. As a remedy, Lanier (1966) advocates developing a critical consciousness, an informed awareness of the social forces which oppress our lives. (p.23)

Documentary Rhetoric, Fact or Fiction? University Students React to the Film, Bowling for Columbine

In American schools, violence has evolved as one of our most riveting social problems. The FBI reported at least 28 cases of school shootings since 1982 (Diket & Mucha, 2002). Educators are concerned about the growing number of violent acts in schools across America and seek reasons and results. They insist that teachers pay attention to the pictures students create, discuss violence and related issues with them, and make time to talk about understanding a volatile world (Susi, 2001; Diket & Mucha, 2002). Freedman (1997) earlier advocated that teachers encourage students to examine the media. Ballengee-Morris and Stuhr (2001) advocate that teachers examine visual culture, notably the theme of violence, and its socio-cultural context. jagodginski (1997) points out baby-boomer nostalgia and baby-buster counter-nostalgia as the real problem. Parents avoid the issues of violence and obscene influences. They want to return to their safe childhood. Schools do the same, consider the theme too controversial and thereby ignore the growing problem. Teachers need studies that report the results of practical investigation with students that lead to further examination of this complex problem of violence

A Growing Ritual of Animal Rock Painting

This visual essay explores a growing art form that blossomed into a community demand for memorial images. Such curiosities draw people’s attention to look closer, spot details, and become closer to nature. To understand the intense attraction, a neighborhood community formulated more demand, interest, and references to spirituality that reflect life’s rituals

Casino Capers: Exploring the Aesthetics of Superfluidity

Casinos are fast becoming sites for display of new Native American (NA) Arts. In such a context, casinos re-represent themselves and their communities through various visual forms and thus change their meanings. In her study of Wisconsin casinos, Stuhr (2004) challenged art educators to consider these visual culture displays as they accommodate new markets. Art in the casino phenomenon is worth investigating and how art educators can explore and/or make sense of this phenomenon is important. Casinos are using artworks as spectacles of pleasure. According to a casino gambling survey conducted by Harrah’s Entertainment, approximately 40 million Americans played slot machines in 2003 (Rivlin, 2004). People are attracted to the glitz and the chance of winning money. Such things are phenomenal— highly sensual and impressive, and there lies the attraction. The gambling experience dates back at least to the casting of lots in the Bible. Experience always has an aesthetic component. An aesthetic experience resides not so much in a thing’s appearance, as in its life-like substitutes. “In an age in which desire is inculcated even in those who have nothing to buy, the metropolis [casino] becomes the place where the superfluity of objects is converted into a value in and of itself” (Mbembe, 2004, p. 405). So what aesthetic qualities draw people to the casino

ArtsBridge to the Yavapi Children: A Desert Ecology Unit in Visual Art

Dr. Mary Stokrocki, Professor at Arizona State University and faculty mentor, worked with art scholar-teacher Laura Hales who was one of her graduate students, to offer an art class to Yavapi third graders at the Hmañ 'Shawa Elementary School, Fort McDowell Yavapai Nation, Fountain Hills, Arizona. The 10-week program was based on the theme “Our Place in the World”(www.artsednet.getty.edu) and included exploratory art criticism, art history, and creating art components. The program began with a prequestionnaire and a pre-drawing of what they like to do, oil pastel and watercolor resist, and ended in a clay relief. Earlier, Hales introduced third-grade students to an art inquiry discussion based on a painting of a girl by Navajo artist Shonto Begay (Clover & Jim, 1997). They learned about the concepts of foreground, middle ground, background and center of interest. Students also learned that “art is making something special!

Empowering Elementary Students’ Ecological Thinking Through Discussing the Animé Nausicaa and Constructing Super Bugs

Ecological teaching models and evidence of success in public schools may be lacking. We created a constructivist ecological model using the animé Nausiscaa with fourth graders in a Scottsdale, Arizona school. The animé involves the epic adventure, good and evil battle to affect the future of the human race. We documented results using questionnaires, photographs, and students’ written final statements. An art teacher introduced the animé, followed with students’ analysis of action sequences, demonstrated how to make three-dimensional super bugs, and questioned students about ecological concerns. Our major research question was how did discussing the animé Nausicaa and making super bugs empower children to reinterpret bug powers and learn about ecology. We offer explanations of surface and deeper influences. While most responses regarding bug powers were bad--offensive and defensive, two emerging good categories related to ecology were recycling and pollinating. Students showed some empathetic understanding and constructed a few ecological connections between their inner and outer worlds

Empowering Elementary Students’ Ecological Thinking Through Discussing the Animé Nausicaa and Constructing Super Bugs

Ecological teaching models and evidence of success in public schools may be lacking. We created a constructivist ecological model using the animé Nausiscaa with fourth graders in a Scottsdale, Arizona school. The animé involves the epic adventure, good and evil battle to affect the future of the human race. We documented results using questionnaires, photographs, and students’ written final statements. An art teacher introduced the animé, followed with students’ analysis of action sequences, demonstrated how to make three-dimensional super bugs, and questioned students about ecological concerns. Our major research question was how did discussing the animé Nausicaa and making super bugs empower children to reinterpret bug powers and learn about ecology. We offer explanations of surface and deeper influences. While most responses regarding bug powers were bad--offensive and defensive, two emerging good categories related to ecology were recycling and pollinating. Students showed some empathetic understanding and constructed a few ecological connections between their inner and outer worlds